Theodor Reik Speaks of his Psychoanalytic Technique

Slochower: Dr. Reik, your writing has a distinct literary, artistic and musical rhythm; it stimulates and suggests more than it propounds and teaches. And I have the feeling that by your style you, yourself, try to reach the “third ear” of your reader. And I wonder whether this sensuous and artistic quality of your writing, is connected with your long and deep interest in literature.

Reik: I think so. And mainly, Freud had changed the sentence “Les Styles de l'Homme” into a variation of “Les Styles et l'Histoire de l'Hommes.” It means: the culture, and background and the education of a person certainly have a great influence on the formation of his style, and I was brought up in a literary atmosphere which Freud, by the way, shared. Freud liked great writers and he mixed with Thomas Mann, with Arthur Schnitzler, and other writers and he appreciated their psychological insight too.

Kennedy: In connection with your literary style, Dr. Reik, I would like to call specific attention to the fact that you are now writing in English and I think of Joseph Conrad, who was born a Pole, became a great stylist in English; so one cannot say that this is without precedent; but it certainly is very rare that a person writes with the same style in a language which is not his mother tongue. How long have you been writing in English?

Reik: Not many years. And I have to admit that I still make grammatical errors—and that I try my best to fight with the spirit of the English language as Jacob fought with the Angel of the Lord, and I am certainly not always blessed.

Slochower: The main question that is in my mind, Dr. Reik, has to do with the technique which you use. Some people are under the impression that you place almost sole emphasis on th